The Eleventh Hour Miracle

“And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, “Why have you been standing here idle all day?” They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.” (Matthew 20:6-7, NKJV).

The eleventh hour is the latest possible time for an event to occur. It is the last hour or the dying minutes up to an opportunity. The eleventh hour miracle is predicated on the parable of the workers in the vineyard which Jesus told in Matthew 20. A parable is a story that is used to illustrate and elucidate a spiritual truth and principle. In this parable, a land owner was hiring workers to work in his vineyard. This land owner was operating a 12-hour work schedule from 6 AM till 6 PM. And his pattern was that every three hours, he went out to recruit laborers from the marketplace. He recruited laborers at 6 AM, 9 AM, 12 PM,  3 PM, and 3 PM was realistically meant to be the last time for recruitment. But somehow, he went back to the market place at 5 PM (i.e. the 11^th hour of the 12-hour schedule) to recruit more laborers.

The import of this parable was that the landowner broke the pattern of recruiting after every 3 hours. At the end of the 12-hour work schedule, he paid all the laborers a denarius which is one day’s wages. So he paid those who worked the entire 12 hours and the 11^th hour laborers who had worked for just 1 hour the same wages. Jesus was clearly pointing out here that there is an 11^th hour miracle which is purely a matter of grace. Eleventh hour miracle usually happens when people have given up hope of a divine intervention. Lazarus was raised at the 11^th hour. In this 11^th month of the year, it is certain God is going to release 11^th hour miracles! To activate and provoke an 11^th hour miracle, the following is imperative:

Don’t give up and walk away: The 11^th hour laborers were still hoping and waiting at 5 PM (i.e. 11^th hour) even when they knew it was unlikely anyone would hire them since work schedule ends at 6 PM. The Bible says in Lamentations 3:25-26, “The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” Someone said when God comes late, He comes big. Man’s extremity is always God’s opportunity to show up. Jesus deliberately delayed and waited 2 days after he heard that Lazarus was sick; He waited to allow him (i.e. Lazarus) to die.  It is vital that we remain in God and not seek solutions from alternative sources.

Engage in heartfelt praise: The truth is that praising God intensely over a time can cause spiritual upheavals and earthquakes. A spiritual earthquake always brings about dramatic breakthrough and deliverance (Acts 16:25-27). When praises go up, Heaven responds by raining down blessings. When the sweet aroma of praises from Spirit-filled believers, washed in the blood of Jesus, rises to Heaven, God moves. And when He is mobilized, He does the impossible. The Israelites after crossing the Red Sea and seeing the wonders of God sang that God is glorious in holiness and fearful in praises (Exodus 15:11). Prolonged and heartfelt praise is an invitation God cannot turn down.

Sow sacrificially: This is one spiritual principle few people engage in. Deliberately and prayerfully giving to God what costs you something can provoke an 11^th hour miracle. Common sense tells us if you have been adopting the same strategies over time and not getting your desired result, evaluate and do things differently. Noah sacrificed and God released a blessing on the earth (Genesis 8:20-22). Solomon sacrificed and the Lord visited him that same night in the dream (2 Chronicles 1:6-12). David sacrificed and God ended the plague that was released on Israel (2 Samuel 24:10-25). Abel sacrificed and God respected (and approved) his offering over that of Cain (Genesis 4:3-5). A sacrifice can turn things around and provoked an 11^th hour miracle.  In Old Testament days, they sacrificed animals and burnt offerings. These days we sacrifice the fruit of our labor, that is the income we have earned.

CONCLUSION: The 11^th hour principle is a spiritual reality. May the 11^th hour miracle that is a manifestation of grace and divine favor be released on us in this month of November in Jesus’ name.

Breaking Bad Habits

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).

The dictionary defines habit as a settled tendency or usual manner of behavior. It is an involuntary act that we do without exercising control. Human beings are creatures of habit. We create our habits, and our habits in turn determine the course of our lives. Great and successful people create good habits which bring them success and good outcomes, while less successful people create habits that bring failures and unfavorable outcomes. Bad habits are disastrous and create addicts, alcoholics, lazy, indulgent, miscreants and the likes. Below are some ways to break the yoke of bad habits:

Be Born again: Being born again is having an encounter with the word of God (1 Peter 1:23) and the Holy Spirit (John 3:6). A genuine encounter with God totally transforms and converts sinners into saints; weak and indulgent people into powerful and decisive individuals. It is a spiritual rebirth that changes the tastes, inclinations and proclivities of the individual. It is God coming to take up residence in a hitherto dead and unregenerate spirit man.

Renew your mind: As the mind goes, so does the man. The mind of man is very powerful. Habits are formed when the brain registers a particular event or action. If the act is repeated and it is pleasurable, it becomes reinforced in the brain. As this act is repeated the brain continues to reinforce it until it becomes a stronghold in the mind. This is essentially how people become addicts. Exposing the mind to large doses of the word of God continuously renews it and shatters negative strongholds in the mind. The word of God converts the soul (Psalm 19:7). God was able to deliver the Israelites from Egypt (Spiritual deliverance) but He couldn’t get them into Canaan, the Promised Land because of their unrenewed and slavery mindset. Mental strongholds, at times, are more difficult to deal with than spiritual strongholds.

Engaging the help of the Holy Spirit: It is by the Holy Spirit that we put to death the desires of the human nature (Romans 8:13). Without the Holy Spirit there cannot be permanent victory. Engaging the Holy Spirit by praying regularly in tongues is a must, if we want to overcome bad habits. The Holy Spirit is fire that destroys the yoke of sin and destructive habits. We also stir up the anointing of the Holy Spirit when we actively engage Him; it is the anointing that destroys yokes and undo burdens in our lives. Bad habits are yokes that are to be destroyed.

Affirm yourself constantly: One of the downsides of bad habits is that it makes us lose confidence in ourselves and taint our self-image. After doing something for a long time the tendency is for us to define ourselves as such. We are not what we do; we are what God, through the scriptures, say we are. A healthy self-image is a sine qua non to breaking bad habits. We will always rise or fall to the image and picture of ourselves that we carry within. It is vital we constantly affirm who we are in Christ regardless of our circumstances. Just like (in Christ Jesus) we aren’t our past, so also, we aren’t what we repeatedly do. As Christians we are God’s righteousness and we carry the seed of righteousness within us.  As we affirm ourselves with the scriptures the hold of destructive habits will be broken.

Keep standing: To keep standing is to continuously maintain our victory in Christ. Our opening scripture in Galatians 5:1 lends credence to this. Freedom always comes with a cost. After colonized countries fight and obtain their independence, they have to keep maintaining their independence and seek total independence from their colonizers; otherwise, they will fall back in some bondage again (neo colonization). The Amalekites were a recurring enemy of the Israelites; from the time they came out of Egypt till the time of Haman the Agagite (an Amalekite), they constantly were a thorn in their flesh. There is need to totally exterminate and root out all evil habits in our lives, else they will be detrimental to our eventual success and wellbeing.

Conclusion: Other vital ways to break bad habits are to avoid idleness, to create good habits to replace the bad ones, and to have worthy mentors and accountability partners that you will open your lives to unashamedly.

Have a blessed month.

Faith. Hope and Love

“Three things will last forever - faith, hope and love – and the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13, NLT).

Faith, hope and love are three virtues or graces that will transcend the temporal world. The opposite of these virtues is unbelief, despair (or hopelessness) and hatred. No one can make it to heaven with unbelief, hopelessness and hatred. These three virtues are to be carefully and diligently cultivated by every child of God. These virtues will give us a good and abundant life here as Jesus promised (John 10:10b), and also guarantee us a place in Heaven.

Faith: Simply defined is abiding trust in God and His promises. It is through God’s promises that we are able to share in His divine nature and operate as “gods” in this world (2 Peter 1:4). Peter the Apostle called God’s promises great and precious. It is the assurance of these promises that help us confront life and overcome life challenges. The rod in the hand of Moses by which he operated as a god over Pharaoh and with which he wrought many wonders can be likened to faith in God and His promises in the new testament. The word rod is “shebet” in Hebrew, and it means a tool for correction and a symbol of authority. David spoke about His rod and His staff comforting him. The Word of God (and His promises) is a tool for correction and also a symbol of authority. God said to Moses, “And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do signs” (Exodus 4:17). Believing and confessing God’s promises makes us to rule and reign in this world. We are saved by faith in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Hope: Simply defined is having a future expectation and anticipation. It relates to the future (Romans 8:24-25). While hope deals with the future, faith deals with the present. Faith gives substance to hope, converting future expectation to present reality. Jesus while still hoping to start His ministry of signs and wonders at a particular time in the future was compelled by the faith of His mother Mary to perform His first miracle i.e. the turning of water into wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-9).  While faith obtains, hope sustains. As Christians, through the resurrection of Jesus, we have the hope of eternal life (1 Peter 1:3). Hope is confident expectation of eternal salvation. Hope transcends this present world to eternity. Apostle Paul said we are to be pitied if our hope in Christ is only for this world (1 Corinthians 15:19).

Love: This is the nature of God. As children of God we grow in this divine love as we progressively understand God’s love for us. The disciple Stephen was able to forgive those stoning him to death on the spot because he was filled with the Holy Spirit and also had a revelation of the love of God (Acts 7:54-59).  This love overcomes evil by doing good; it is never conquered by evil.  A testimony was told about a sister who had a stubborn neighbor who hated their guts because they lived in an upscale part of town that people of their nationality aren’t supposed to live. This unfriendly neighbor did everything possible to frustrate this sister and her family. This sister, rather than reacting to her hostile neighbor in kind, chose to pray for her in love. Within two weeks of praying, this neighbor surprisingly turned around and began to entreat this sister and her family. The turnaround of this neighbor was nothing but supernatural. The Bible says the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love (Galatians 5:6, NIV). The new testament way of relating with our enemies is to feed them when they are hungry, and give them drink when they are thirsty.  Love is the greatest of the virtues.

CONCLUSION: As potent as faith is, it only works and produces by divine love. As futuristic as hope is, it needs faith for the future and the One who holds the future. Love is a stand-alone virtue. Just as everything rises and falls on leadership, in God’s kingdom and economy everything rises and falls on agape love. Love is the ultimate!